EOD Caucus Congressional Networking

In July, CXC’s CEO, Dave Wulf, and Summer Fellows attended USBTA's top-flight "State of the EOD and Bomb Technician Community" event. The event highlighted the benefits of a Congressional caucus to advance policies impacting industry or communities of interest. At USBTA's event, Members of the Congressional EOD Caucus spent time speaking with the crowd—and individually with USBTA members, showcasing a high level of understanding of issues of importance to the bomb-tech community and sharing insights on budget/appropriations priorities.  This event has re-emphasized how CXC could pursue a congressional caucus focused on the cross-sector critical infrastructure owner/operator community. 

 The future of CISA, and particularly its Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP), was on the mind of Caucus co-chair, Rep. Rick Crawford, who noted that language that would move OBP from CISA into the DHS Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) organization had successfully been inserted into the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  The goal of this move is to ensure an appropriate level of focus and budget-support for OBP, recognizing that CISA has seen its budget and personnel significantly cut during over the past year.

Other CISA-related takeaways included mention of the ongoing Strategic Review the agency is conducting internally, with the aim of ensuring a laser-focus on the highest priority threats/risks.  CISA Acting Director Nick Anderson has repeatedly talked about the importance of "ruthless prioritization" as the agency recalibrates its priorities.. . .and it's clear that the effort to frame this future state is now underway.  It seems likely that a number of missions previously undertaken by the agency—including in the Infrastructure Security Division—are under review to determine prioritization.